Alex Wagner

So that's a sort of...

That's a structural problem in any strategy in this situation.

I mean, I don't think it's a great sign that within 24 hours, they've peeled off three Democratic senators, right?

I think it's...

I think the fact that Trump has ordered federal agencies to have sort of banners on their website saying, this agency is not able to operate at full tilt because of a Democrat-led shutdown.

You know, he is doing things that are clear violations of the Hatch Act.

But like, whatever, the Hatch Act went the way of the dodo bird some eight years ago.

But I mean, the lawlessness and the sort of wanton...

The lawlessness and the rules not applying to them are really being, you know, it ratchets up to like a degree that we haven't seen before in typical fights, right?

Like they will weaponize every part of the federal bureaucracy to have a partisan fight with Democrats.

They have a president who's utterly reckless and they have a real sociopath.

Who's like picking and choosing which blue states to fuck over hardest, given an opportunity to shrink the federal workforce in a period of like government shutdown.

So, you know, I do think of some real leverage here.

Having said that, I mean, Dan, the polling is good for Democrats on the issue of health care for right now.

And I think, again, I go back to what I said at the beginning.

I think it's good that that's what the stories have to lead with.

This is why Democrats are doing this, because this is the reality for Democrats.

Many people, if not the majority of Americans who are on either the exchanges or whose insurance premiums are going to rise, which is like everybody who's in a pool that's affected by fewer healthy people being in the pool.

So is a lot of the country.

So, you know, I think they at least for the moment have a hand to play and on an issue that really matters.